NDC MPs defy military to satirically commission uncompleted National Cathedral project

There was a confrontation between the military and some Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) led by North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa when the lawmaker set out to hold a press conference at the site of the National Cathedral project on March 6, 2024.

After the back and forth with the military, the MPs led by Ablakwa addressed the press with 13 demands for the government.

Addressing the press, the MP for North Tongu and his colleagues asked the government to account for the project after failing to complete the cathedral as the then Finance Minister promised in 2021.

Describing the project as the most expensive pit in the world, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said, “We are demanding full accountability of what happened to our $58,141,509.52. We also want to know why the contractors abandoned this project for lack of payment two years ago.”

He added, “We are demanding a comprehensive report on how much it has cost the state to replace and compensate some owners of demolished properties and how much is still outstanding, considering that aggrieved demolished property owners such as Waterstone Realty have resorted to the court.”

Ablakwa also called for the immediate termination of the contract, saying that the longer the project remains suspended, the greater the cost to the taxpayer.

Despite being barred from entering the construction site, the minority MPs took a stance by commissioning the uncompleted National Cathedral project as a symbolic gesture aimed at highlighting the government’s failure to finish the project and inaugurate it this year.